Actress. She is best remembered for her portrayal of the lively bandleader Sweet Sue in "Some Like It Hot" (1959). She began her career in 1940, as a teenage model for the prestigious John Powers Agency in New York City, New York, and not long after her 18th birthday she was performing as a showgirl on Broadway. Under the original stage name of Joyce Ring, she appeared in lead roles in such productions as "By Jupiter" and "A Connecticut Yankee." Discovered by film director Charles Barton during at gala at the Museum of Modern Art, he was so impressed by her intellectual charm, slimness, and blonde good looks, that he personally arranged for her to relocate from New York to California and begin a career in the film industry beginning with her being under his direction in "Men in Her Diary" (1945). For the next 30 years, she would enjoy a successful career as a character actress; one of whom was often typecast as a secretary, gold digger, femme fatale, society figure, singer, playgirl, businesswoman, chorine, debutante, businesswoman, love interest, reporter, best friend, maid, nurse, educator, mother, wife, and, in her later years, matriarch. Some of her films appearances include "Frontier Gal" (1945), "Because of Him" (1946), "Idea Girl" (1946), "Cuban Pete" (1946), "Lover Come Back" (1946), "I'll Be Yours" (1947), "Michigan Kid" (1947), "Woman on the Run" (1947), "Prehistoric Women" (1950), "Two Tickets to Broadway" (1951), "Something for the Birds" (1952), "All Ashore" (1953), "Loose in London" (1953), "From Here to Eternity" (1953), "Pride of the Blue Grass" (1954), "A Star is Born" (1954), "Conquest for Space" (1955), "The Apartment" (1960), "Irma La Douce" (1963), "Critic's Choice" (1963), "The Wild Angels" (1966), "Tony Rome" (1968), "Willard" (1971), "Longshot" (1981), "Buddy Buddy" (1981), and "City Heart" (1984). During the advent of television, she became a familiar face making various guest appearances on such syndicated sitcoms as "The Colgate Comedy Hour," "The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse," "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," "Stories of the Century," "Aggie," "The Ethel Barrymore Theatre," "Zorro," "The Betty Hutton Show," "The Rifleman," "Glynis," "Hazel," "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "Run for Your Life," "Adam-12," "The Red Skelton Hour," "Love, American Style," "Men at Law," "The Name of the Game," "The Rookies," "Columbo," "Movin' On," "Mannix," "S.W.A.T.," "Police Story," "Emergency!," "The Tony Randall Show," "Quincy, M.E.," "Starsky and Hutch," "The Last Resort," "Archie Bunker's Place," "Hart to Hart," "Crazy Like a Fox," and "Highway to Heaven." During her career, she was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, was supportive of the Motion Picture and Television Fund, was active with the Hollywood Democratic Committee, was a regular parishioner of the Catholic church, was a vocal coach for the Pasadena Playhouse, was a chairwoman for her local charters of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and United Way, and she was married to printing executive Walter Shawlee, whose surname she took as her own upon entering her profession, and hotel resort manager Eddie Barchet (both unions ended in divorce and she mothered one son from her first marriage and one daughter from her second). Retiring due to poor health in 1986, she died from complications coinciding with breast cancer.